Why Google’s “Home Alone Again” Became the Most Popular Holiday Ad in 2018

Why we’re all in on performance branding – and how it can transform your growth.

Why Google’s “Home Alone Again” Became the Most Popular Holiday Ad in 2018

Bryan Karas

January 10, 2019

Oh…the holidays, when marketers love to broadcast campaigns with heartwarming and sentimental themes – the family all together at the dinner table, opening gifts around the Christmas tree, you’ve seen it…

But according to AcuityAds analysis, it’s not sentimental themes that win this year…it’s humor.

First off, humor, when done correctly, always wins – especially when marketing to Millennials. Consumers are more likely to remember and share funny content. Our boy, Elon Musk sensed it when he was caught poaching staff from funny rag, The Onion (take that with a grain of salt).

But humor wasn’t the only thing Google threw at us during their recreation of the hit 90’s cult film Home Alone. They also threw in a side of nostalgia. And it worked…

Google’s “Home Alone Again” was viewed over 70 million times – taking the top spot as most viewed holiday ad this season.

So next year, when you’re thinking about how to best reach Millennials for the holidays, try and step away from the sentimental approach. Yes, Millennials and GenZers enjoy emotionally-compelling and sometimes politically driven stories that take a step beyond traditional advertising, but according to Ace Metrix data, those sentimental-esque themes are less effective when trying to get someone to take action.

Try nostalgia and humor instead – we wrote about it before but it’s a super important topic and worth repeating…

“When a consumer sees a piece of content (or an ad) that brings back good memories – childhood, teen years, college – it makes them feel good. Simply put, nostalgia turns negative emotions (daily stress from responsibilities, a hard day at work, someone taking the last slice of pizza, etc) into positive emotions.”

The nostalgia will get the consumers attention and the humor will keep their attention. And today – when it’s said that humans have the attention span of a goldfish – that sounds like a pretty good start.

Corona wants us to enjoy our beers on beautiful beaches; launched cause marketing campaign

Besides nostalgia, Millennials are also attracted to social driven cause marketing. Which is why Corona launched a cause marketing campaign to help drive attention to and help clean up the plastic on our beaches and in our oceans.

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When asked, in an interview with the American Marketing Association, how many brands are good at marketing themselves and their products as iconic, Soon Yu replied…“Owning a niche in a specific category is an opportunity to become iconic.” That’s good news for smaller brands competing with the Nikes, Coca-Colas and Mercedes Benz of the world.

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There always comes a time when a DTC company starts to see their growth slow and their sales flatten out. So what do you do? Boom – bring new products to your customers by expanding product lines that make sense and align with your brand.